


A Brace of Heroes, a Peggy and a Time Machine

by oonaseckar



Category: Avengers (Comics), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Threesome, Threesome - F/M/M, Time Skips, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, ménage à trois
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:34:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 99
Words: 11,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21826027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oonaseckar/pseuds/oonaseckar
Summary: Steve would like to use the illegal time machine that Tony's macgyvered up to put things right.  But, obviously, that would be unethical.Bucky doesn't have any such scruples.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Peggy Carter & Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers/Howard Stark, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Peggy Carter & Steve Rogers, Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers
Comments: 22
Kudos: 86





	1. After the battle comes quiet

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter title from H.G. Wells' The Time Machine.

Peggy's boys come visit her, as often as they can make it. She can't always remember their names – or sometimes she remembers them the wrong way around. But she always knows her boys, just the same.

They always come separately, which pains her for reasons she isn't sure of. But she's sure they used to be fast friends, and perhaps that's it. Never out of each other's company, a real old David and Jonathan, she's sure of that, joined at the hip almost. And now they're the husband and wife on a weather-vane: you can only see the one when the other's disappeared.

The nice fair boy is the first one who comes and tells her about the time machine. And just the phrase makes her think of H.G. Wells, and then from there to alien invasions and that whole fuss with the radio show, and the unfortunate misunderstanding Mr Orson Welles had with the American public, and it all seems oddly familiar. She could swear there was some similar fuss recently, but were the aliens involved invented or real? And she's wracking what's left of her brain to try to think of it, when she realizes that she's drifted off again, when she should be paying attention to Steve. Yes, _Steve_ , that's it.

And he's on the ground with his head in her lap, where they're sitting out on the patio of her nice rooms in assisted living quarters. (Assistance! Assistance, when she used to be... she used to be... She isn't sure who she still _is_ , still less who she used to be. But she has a strong feeling that she used to be a hellion, a bitch on wheels. She used to _command_.)

“...so I can't do it, Peg, I can't. I thought that perhaps I could justify it, but how can I? How can you give any kind of informed consent, to something like this? There's no way. Not when even if you agree in one minute, you'll have forgotten it in the next. It's not fair to you. And it's wonderful, this century, but it's not _only_ wonderful. If I'm honest, it's been... traumatic, adjusting to it. Some ways. I can't put you through that, just because... God, Peg. I'm so lonely. I have all these friends here, now, and they're great, and I'm so damn lonely for someone who'll know what I mean when I say I want to jump up and dance a jitterbug, or how about going to see Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney in a double feature at the flicks. These kids, they think no-one else has ever been young, Peg, and that they'll be young forever. But you and me, you and me and him...”

He stills, and lifts his head to look up at her. “We could be young together again, Peg. All of us.” Oh, his eyes are so solemn, and so blue, honest as a day's work, or the blood on a traitor's cut throat back in occupied France. (Sometimes Peggy can't make out the gyrations of her own thoughts, the habitual channels they run in make no sense to her anymore.) “The machine, it doesn't deliver you to another time. It's the Fountain of Youth, Peg – it knocks the years off you, and you step out again into _this_ day, _this_ time, but... That's what Tony says, anyhow, and he usually knows his stuff. It's illegal as hell – it would cause chaos – and totally proscribed. Tony was supposed to destroy it, after the madman made it in the first place. But for a friend, there isn't much Tony wouldn't do... You could be twenty again, Peg. I never knew you at twenty, even, but I bet you were something to see, all the same. I'll bet you were a knockout, 'cause you weren't too shabby even at twenty-five, turning the first corner and an official old maid.”

Peggy has a distinct feeling – from the playful flinch backwards he gives – that she's supposed to smack him at this point. So she does, lightly, and oh how he laughs. Laughs like a man struggling not to cry. And he struggles with it, and masters himself barring one tear he wipes away. He stands up, patting her knee.

“I wish so much, Peg,” he says softly. “I wish for everything. But I can't do it. I mustn't.” He bends, and kisses her cheek. “I'll see you next week, Peg. Just the same as ever.”

She doesn't know if it's the same afternoon that the dark-haired boy comes, or the next day, or it could be a week later. Time plays such funny tricks on her these days, barring the trick of time itself, that's not funny at all.

This one, he isn't ushered in by starstruck dazzled nurses. He climbs in through the window, instead, with a knife gritted between his teeth. Peggy should probably be alarmed, but she's rather charmed, instead.

This, this seems familiar, too. Something in her knows it's mostly for show, and to please her. This one, he's a _flirt_. “Hey sweetheart, how's my best girl?” he asks her, squatting down at her feet with the knife discarded, stuck in his belt. If she knew who she was, she might know why his smile breaks her heart, too – in his grimy unwashed face, hair wild and mussed, he's still a good-looking boy but he used to be...

Well, she doesn't know that, either. No point pretending. But she pets his hair, and he submits to it just as if he weren't a wild animal, off the chain. She knows that feral look in the eye, and back in the day in the field she'd have had her hand on the hilt of the bowie knife in her garter, all ready to put a mad creature down half out of mercy, and... This is _her_ boy, though. They'd have to come at him _through_ her. Even now.

And he pats at her knee with a hand that shines silver, through horrid flower-printed viscose, and if she knew who'd bought half her wardrobe, these days, she'd put them down too. “Peggy. Peggy, Peggy, Peg. I got a plan for you, I've got an _exploit_ , an adventure. You're always up for an adventure, isn't that right, Peg?” Oh, this wild one, he grins up at her, and _he knows her,_ so much better than Steve. (Steve?) He always did.

“We're gonna go out dancing, Peg,” he tells her, still grinning. If that's malice in his eyes then she fears for the world. But at least it's not directed at _her_. “Dancing, hunting, a little light assassination depending on what jobs we can pick up. Hunting down evildoers, living under aliases, bounty-hunting, drinking and raising hell and making whoopee. What do you say, Peg? Maybe we can even persuade _His Nibs_ into joining us, our better angel, huh? Us three against the world, the world had better watch out. There's just one thing we need to do first – a little matter of fifty or sixty years or so, knocked off your hide. And I have me a little plan, because I hear Howard's kid's come up with a nifty gizmo to deal with that...”

He doesn't explain much more than that, but it doesn't matter. Peggy wouldn't remember it anyway. She goes with him, because he asks. She would have gone with Steve, too. He just didn't ask her.

xxx

So Peggy conspires to allow herself to be kidnapped, from her safe quiet whimper of a final rest before the final, final rest.


	2. hello, Marconi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve pops in, to see Peggy again.
> 
> But the Soldier's already swiped the jewels.

He steals her away in the night, and it's _thrilling_. Peggy waves goodbye in the starlight, to the enormous Victorian redbrick asylum, made over into a 'bin' -- most _surely_ \-- for the infirm and the doddering, a place for the last coals of wit and life to burn up and drift away, like ashes of a bonfire floating on the wind.

"My love," this sinister, charming dark shadow says to her, gently. No, Peggy hasn't the first clue who she might be waving to, not anymore. Would carry on cluelessly, forever, without him to stop her. And he wraps her nightdress more firmly about her, helps her to tie the cord on her velour dressing-gown.

Thank heaven for this nice young man. Without him, she'd have come out without her bunny slippers.

***

Steve doesn't normally visit so early. It's inconsiderate, he knows it -- the residents need their sleep, and God knows the wonderful, heroic staff require time, space and the odd cuppa joe, to get their frail, elderly charges up and washed and dressed and... 

Well. He isn't himself, not lately. Not since Tony was damfool enough to spill the beans about his infernal machine, anyway.

He knows he made the right decision, though. Absolutely the right decision.

He just feels a pressing need, to have a little talk about it with Peggy. One more time. After the last _three_ times.

Even if she won't remember a word, an hour later.


	3. “I feel an almost overwhelming interest in the methods of daylight abduction employed by the modern youth.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve keeps re-thinking the whole 'time-machine' issue, arguing it out with himself.
> 
> But when you're dealing with a man of action, you can't just play around with hypotheses forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is Georgette Heyer.

And it wasn't as if Steve didn't know there was always a morning rush in the nursing home, a hive of activity and chores to get the residents set up for the day. He was expecting it, in fact.

But this, this wasn't that. Normally there were two care-staff on the reception desk at all times. But this morning, there was only one harassed-looking kid. He recognized her as a newbie trainee, barely a couple of months on the job. And she was on the phone anyhow, speaking in a high panicky tone of voice. "I don't know! Nobody knows! Look, can you just get here as soon as you can? She didn't take anything with her, she -- anything could happen!"

Steve could have hung around. But that was enough info for him to speed up instead, and sail right past the reception desk, to start running up the stairs, bypassing the elevator. The kid didn't protest, or yell that he needed to sign in, or even _notice_ , too busy frantically begging into the receiver, almost crying.

He hit Peggy's corridor at a fair clip, passing a couple of staff members who were running too -- against the rules -- on the way. And it was _chaos_. There were nurses running in and out of Peggy's room, a heck of a lot of shouting going on, and such a buzz of confusion that Steve wasn't prepared to tolerate it.

And it wasn't that he actually _meant_ to step in and _exert his manly authority._ (Because Nat had already had several 'tactful but assertive' little chats with him, about that.)


	4. conflict resolution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve's none too happy.

In the middle of Peggy's small, graciously-appointed living quarters, the home manager is standing. Steve knows her, from multiple previous visits. She's nice, and efficient, and Steve likes her. It makes no difference, because if this doesn't turn out well then there's going to be hell to pay. Most of it coming from Steve's direction.

He steps in front of her - Lynnette, her name is Lynette. Right in front of her, and up close, despite the fact that she's red-faced, talking in a loud voice and up close to two other senior charge-nurses.


	5. Steve Rogers might be about to lose his temper.  oooo-OOOO-oooooh.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve's getting more polite. It's not a good sign.

"Ma'am," he says, and for a second, two, that's _all_ he says. It couldn't be more civil. It's a mode of address used by Boy Scouts, and gentlemen being knighted by old Lillibet, Queen of perfidious Albion and all associated ex-colonies. It's how Steve generally addresses women, and it's charming.

It's _usually_ charming.


	6. thar she blows!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve just needs to establish the facts. First.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is Herman Melville.

"I assume the emergency services have been alerted," he says. Because they damn well better have been. He knows that Lynette can read as much in his eyes, because she's far from an idiot. And although she swallows beforehand, she nods.

"Yes, of course, Mr Rogers," she says. (She knows him, too. Apart from being Captain America, he's the named emergency contact on Peggy's records. At least, since Sharon got posted to Europe by SHIELD.)


	7. to lose one lover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve isn't in a good place, psychologically. Oh, he's holding it together. With paperclips and bits of string.
> 
> But he's _this close_ to the edge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title owes something to Oscar Wilde. Ole Oscar, the geezer! Oscar, olé olé olé!

And she's seen him around this place time and again, these past few months. He haunts the place like a revenant, regret and guilt and tenderness just tearing him up inside. As if it wasn't enough to have lost Bucky, lost him in a way that's much, much worse than death...

He has to go and lose Peggy, too. And this fate, also, one to which death might be preferred as a kindness.

Steve, he loses everyone. Carelessness, Oscar Wilde might call it.


	8. lost: one hardass secret agent bitch on wheels.  in a cardigan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's them as can organise a piss-up in a brewery, and them as can't. Steve thinks he knows which category Lynette belongs to.

"The receptionist is trying to get through to them," Lynette clarifies.

The _receptionist_. The trainee kid that Steve charged past half a minute ago, then. The one who was too frazzled to challenge him, and the rest of the place either empty, or full of panicked staff running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

Jesus. No wonder this place loses the odd resident every now and then.


	9. they were remembering who they were not singing it with

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve usedta have someone at his back, but now he's gotta go up against life alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is Terry Pratchett.

It's probably a good thing that he doesn't have time to open his mouth. Because he can feel that he's about to SAY THINGS, just the way he used to feel an uncontrollable cataract of THINGS HE JUST HAD TO SAY. When confronted by a bullying asshole, back in the day.

Back when he could rely on Bucky to grab him by the collar and get him out of there, or to fight by his side. Oh, such a long time ago.


	10. latest news, now just in

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve has a sarcastic little bitch, stuffed somewhere deep inside.

Their attention's distracted, though. His, the senior nurses, the Matron -- they look towards the door of the living quarters, where the kid on reception has just arrived. She's holding the phone receiver, and panting a bit. Everyone running around like they're in athletics events, now the damage is done? Better if they'd put the effort into _not_ mislaying a dementia-suffering war-heroine, in the first place. THAT'S WHAT STEVE THINKS.


	11. those we leave behind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peggy is cared for. Maybe not competently, but cared for.

"They're on the way," she gasps. "I told them, she took her medication -- but she doesn't know what she's supposed to _have_ , we have to do it for her! She hasn't even got outside shoes or proper clothes, she could get hypothermia, what if she --"

The kid's nearly in tears. That's Peggy: loved, even when her own self, the _ping!_ and _zing!_ and terrifying ruthless _joie de vivre_ of her, it's all ebbing away, bit by bit. It softens Steve up a bit -- just marginally.


	12. issue settled, case closed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That's that, right? It'll be _fine_.

He pats her on the shoulder. "Don't worry," he says. "With the emergency services on the case -- and every single one of the Avengers, if necessary -- we'll get her back home within the hour. She'll be fine." Had better be, had damn well _better_ be, he thinks grimly.

And Lynette jumps in. "That's right -- don't get hysterical, Sandy, it's not going to help anything. Go back down to the reception desk -- I hope you haven't left it unmanned?"

(Lynette isn't really such a bitch as all that, Steve thinks. But the instinct, in a crisis, is to play keep-away and keepy-uppy with the ball, regarding blame and responsibility, after all. For most folks, at the mediocre moral standard humanity generally attains.)


	13. You make me vomit!  You're scum between my toes!  Love, Alfalfa.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve isn't the only one who'll do anything to get Peggy back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from The Little Rascals.

"But what about next of kin?" Sandy demands - pig-tailed, freckled, fresh-faced Sandy. What is this kid, about sixteen? And straight out of the 1940s and The Little Rascals? And, evidently, not much of a one for the chain of command. Not when someone she cares about is in trouble.

(Steve woulda had kids like this. Him and Peggy. Oh, wow, and that hurts.)


	14. all in the family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Of course, Sharon's gotta know sometime.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Profumo/Christine Keeler reference.

Steve's heart sinks, at the thought. "You can't tell Sharon yet," he says abruptly, turning to Lynnette. "We'll get her back, there's no point giving her a heart attack."

"Absolutely," Lynnette says eagerly, and well, she _would_ , wouldn't she. "There's no doubt Ms Carter will be retrieved in short order, and we only need to consider --"

"I didn't mean the _niece_ ," Sandy says. She says it abrupt, and loud, and like someone who's running out of patience.

God-damn millennials.


	15. to acquire one nephew

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What's been going on, then?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is a nod to Wilde.

"Then who?" asks Miriam, one of the senior nurses having the urgent pow-wow with Matron. Her voice is sharp.

Damn good question. All eyes on Sandy. Who boggles her own eyes a bit, and shrugs her shoulders impatiently.

" _I_ don't know his name. The nephew, right?"


	16. a favorite and only nephew

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sandy may not be the sharpest tool.

"What nephew?" Is what Steve says: and everyone else present, too, in the same moment.

Sandy looks taken aback, only for a moment. "Um. Well, I don't know his name. I was on late shift last week, and left my overall in Peggy's room: when I went back he was in there, and I had to explain it was out of visiting hours and he'd have to come back tomorrow. I did _challenge_ him: he said he was Peggy's nephew. Actually, he said he was her favorite nephew. And her tutor in hand-to-hand combat. And her hairdresser. I mean, I knew he was kidding with the last two. I'm not dumb. And she agreed."

Lynette has her hand to her forehead: her eyes are grimaced shut, and she moans a little. "Oh, of course she did."


	17. the ballad of you and me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So. Whoever can Peggy's mysterious nephew be?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is Pete Seeger, 'The Ballad of You and Me'.

Of course she did. Peggy still has joyful moments of lucidity, when she knows who Steve is, knows that he loves her and she loves him, and that they had something wonderful together.

But not often, not anymore. And when she's away with the fairies, well, you could tell her she's having tea with the Goblin King and the Mad Hatter, and she'd obligingly agree with you.

"Oh, Sandy. For God's sake," Miriam says, looking about fit to blow a gasket. But Steve hasn't got time for recriminations.


	18. madam, will you talk?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, Steve has some idea, anyhow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is either Mary Stewart or an old folksong.

He takes his wallet out of his bomber jacket pocket -- because apparently, a fondness for the classic styles of his actual youth means he's a _hipster_ , these jaded days. And from it he extracts a little old booth photo, the kind you barely see anymore, now that every kid has a computer and a camera in their jeans pocket.

He extends it towards Sandy, so she can get a good old gander. "Is that the guy?" he asks her.


	19. scars... remind us that our past is real

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Target located.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is Cormac McCarthy.

Sandy has a good squint. "Well," she says doubtfully. Then she looks closer. "He wasn't anywhere near that smart," she says, still a little dubious. "And the hair... Actually I thought he might be homeless or something. But... no, that's him. The eyes. Or... it's a real old photo, right? Is that his dad, maybe, or..."

"Never mind," Steve says tightly, tucking the photo away again. Evidently Sandy isn't any kind of history buff. He looks at Lynnette, who was trying to get a glimpse of the picture, and looks annoyed to not be in the loop. "I'll have her back shortly. Tell the cops I've got a lead, if they want to talk to me."


	20. kittywompus alert

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If there's a Stark in the general vicinity, can disaster be far away?

It wasn't as if Steve was in doubt about the first place to look.

Where the trouble had all started, that was the thing. Where almost _all_ trouble usually originated, in Steve's experience. When there was a Stark around, you could bet he brought storms and rumpus, gosh-darn kittywompus in his wake, wasn't it ever so?

But at least Howard would buy a guy _dinner_ and murmur a few sweet nothings, before dragging you off on some hare-brained scheme and risking your neck.


	21. Triple-A Pass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve just wants a little chat with Tony. That's all.

Tony's laboratory, then. His _personal_ laboratory -- not the professional ones on the upper floors of Stark Towers, where lab and admin staff have access and baby projects get greenlit for production.

No, the one down in the basement. (Which, to be fair, makes it sound more sinister than it deserves.) The one you really need an access-all-areas pass, to get into.

Lucky that Steve is an Avenger, then.


	22. paper disproves Spock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve is kind of a secret nerd. Well, all that time hanging out with Howard, you know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is Big Bang Theory.

Even then his passcard wouldn't get him through the door, except when he's specifically working on a special project with Tony. (And God knows what Tony's up to in there half the time, whether it's sexbots or hacking into secret government agencies, or maybe he's just kicking back and reading the funnies.)

It wouldn't, if Steve hadn't picked up a trick or two, from this modern age of wonders. He's been tinkering with his permissions and access for a while, now.

Just in case of a situation like _this_ one: one where folks think that Grandad Steve is _superfluous to requirements,_ and they're all set to fuck up their lives, or global warming, or Steve's mom's vanilla cake recipe. Where they think Steve is some kind of _technophobe dummy_ who can't follow a YouTube instructional on coding, or electronics.

He used to fly Howard's fancy-ass plane, half the time. He'd just like to let that be _known_ , here.


	23. the villain's lair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky, run to earth. And where Bucky is, Peggy must be.
> 
> That's how Steve's got it worked out in his head.

Him and Bucky, they used to build model planes, and not from _kits_ , from _scratch_ , planes that could goddamn _fly_. They took old broken radios apart and made them work again, wind-up clocks, they...

Anyhow. He's been playing smiley-nicey with staff and visitors and deliverypeople and all, down the levels at Avengers Towers. And now, this is it: Tony's private lab.


	24. two men enter, one man leaves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve, justifying himself, to himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from Beyond Thunderdome. Or it might be Rollerball.
> 
> Alla this is post-Winter Soldier.

Steve swipes his pass, and he can feel that his face is grim. It's not like confrontations with Buck have been going especially _well_ lately. But he didn't choose this, and he can't let Bucky lead Peggy off on a dangerous wild goose chase, in search of the fountain of youth. Now, can he? If he resisted the temptation himself, well then. Well. He can _understand_ it. But that doesn't make it okay.

Oh, and also, his pass doesn't work.


	25. Steve is a stealth ninja.  He is, I tell you, HE IS!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dammit, foiled again. Steve is not happy.

Which is _bullshit_. He knows the system, he knows when Tony updates and what checks and balances he runs.

He's picked up a whole lot from Bruce and Nat and Tony himself, he's a _governmental special agent_ for God's sake, he's practically a _stealth ninja_ at this point. Whatever the hell _that_ is, but there seems to be a lot of it about.

Dammit, he _is_.

And this is the lousiest time imaginable for Tony to decide to run security upgrades.


	26. gatekeeper issues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve needs in the laboratory. Tony has locked him out.
> 
> Hulksmash?

He tries the card again, three or four times. But it's absolutely definitely no-go, so _cheers_ for that, Tony.

And then he takes a step back, and stares at the door. It's reinforced steel, of course, and not just that. All kinds of enhancements and furbelows, to keep the intellectually-Neanderthal riffraff out.

Like him.

Peggy needs him. He knows that much. (Bucky needs him, he thinks, too. But that's a lot more problematic.)


	27. HULKSMASH!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve knows a bad idea when he likes one.

He could be wrong, even, about this being the place. Buck could have her stashed away in some secret hideaway, waiting until the coast is clear to make his move.

But Bucky's not a man to hang around when his mind is made up -- or he never used to be. Steve's betting that this is the place, and right now is the time.

And he could go get help, for this. Tony, to get formally approved access. Or Bruce, for a little Hulksmash, no permission necessary.


	28. Why We Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peggy needs Steve. Steve goes where he's needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from the series of WWII documentaries by Frank Capra.

And by that time, Peggy could have melted into genetic goop, inside a malfunctioning device bodged together by Tony out of spare parts and lunacy.

Steve doesn't hesitate. Maybe he'll wreck the place, maybe he'll bring down the tower in rubble, shake the foundations.

It's for Peggy. He doesn't give a damn.


	29. the old college try

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve, vs. modern engineering. Stark-approved modern engineering.

(His shield would help. But he's still super-strong, right?) He gathers himself a micro-second, and charges the door.

..

Damn. The door bites _back_. What the hell has Tony put in that thing, anyhow? The walls shudder, the floor creaks underneath him, and Steve is bounced back ten, twenty feet. He's on his ass on the floor, scratching his head.

But he jumps back up on to his feet, and goes for it again, because it's for Peggy. And Sarah Rogers didn't birth no quitters.


	30. a forlorn hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve ain't no quitter. He isn't smart enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'break on through to the other side' - Steve's been checking out some classic American rock.

Second try. Third, fourth. When it gets to the fifth, Steve's a little shaken and weary. He isn't exactly losing faith in himself. Yet.

But just the same, before he goes for it a fifth time, he puts a call out to the rest of the Avengers on his phone. 'get here, stat'. He doesn't have time for more: they can locate him via GPS, and either he'll break on through to the other side, or they'll get here before he does. Maybe he does need reinforcements, maybe it's Peggy's best chance.

But now. Fifth try. Steve spits on his hands, paces a little like a toreador, or like the bull he's fighting. Tries to ignore that he's feeling a little dizzy.

He takes a run up, and he throws himself at that god-damn door.


	31. no soucy, buddy boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve is invulnerable. Almost.

Head-first. Head-first, and his Ma always used to say he had a head made of pure concrete. Which is how he's kind of got to thinking of it, since the serum: invulnerable, rock-solid.

Of course, half the time he used to be wearing the _helmet_ , when he tried that particular move: headbutting something strong and solid. And not up against a reinforced example of top-quality Stark engineering.

And that's the last thing he knows about it, for who knows how long.


	32. Sarah Rogers' smart boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waking up.

"You really did bring all the stupid," Bucky says. He's holding Steve's hand.


	33. have you tried switching it off and switching it on again?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Slight misunderstanding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is The IT Crowd.

Except, no, he isn't. But Steve's a little muggy, and a temporary confusion can be excused. Because what Bucky's _actually_ doing, is to take the door pass out of Steve's fist, where it was clenched. Then he passes that shining silver paw of his over it, and there's a whine as a finger-substitute retracts, and _something else_ shoots out for a moment. And bonds, to the magnetic strip on the pass. There's a loud hum, and a click, and then the process reverses. Whatever it might be.

Bucky -- or the Soldier, how is Steve to know who he's dealing with really? -- raises an eyebrow at Steve. Much as if to say, "Now _that_ was all you needed. Any fool knows that!"


	34. minor dispute

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve wants what Bucky wants. Mostly.
> 
> But it's not right, and he has to stop it.

And he makes as if to rise, loose wild hair swinging, those black rags he wears now not tight, because _does he ever eat anymore?_ (And he used to sit across from Steve in the diner talking a blue streak, checking out the dames, and he'd steal half Steve's grilled cheese, always hungry, for food, for life...)

Steve grabs at him. Mostly, because this can't be allowed, this wild scheme must be prevented. Mostly.


	35. You made Duolingo sad.  We miss you, Steve Rogers!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve's learning Russian.
> 
> BECAUSE.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is (almost) from Duolingo.

Oh, but that metal hand is cold: just like the Soldier's eyes. And what he spits out at Steve might as well be gibberish, because although Steve's been secretively checking out Babel, and Duolingo, and picking up what Russian he can, it's hardly enough to get him anywhere close to _fluent_ in the spoken language, at this point.

(Yeah, he's been learning Russian. _Because_. Shut up, and keep your nose out.)


	36. the Star Spangled Man with a Plan!!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh, Steve knows when he's being baited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from the song Star Spangled Man in the film Captain America: The First Avenger, from Marvel Comics Music Inc.

The Soldier yanks himself away, out of Steve's hands. _Forcefully_. And he rises, and walks towards the lab door.

He's whistling as he does it: and then he begins to sing. The song's pretty darn familiar.

_Who's strong and brave, here to save the American Way?_   
_Who vows to fight like a man for what's right night and day?_

_Who will campaign door-to-door for America?_   
_Carry the flag shore to shore for America_   
_From Hoboken to Spokane_

_Oh it's t_ _he Star Spangled Man with a Plan!_

And right then, Steve's mad as hell.


	37. rise or fall, give his all for America

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve just wants to know: is this Bucky, or is it the Soldier?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from Star Spangled Man.

He's pushing himself up, onto his knees, onto his feet -- still a bit woozy. And he snaps out, "So who the hell are you, anyway?"

It's loud and angry enough to stop the Soldier in his tracks. But when he turns around -- still with one eyebrow raised, like Steve's _so funny,_ and trivial, and he's kinda busy to be dealing with this -- at least he's _listening_.

(At least he's not taking Peggy on dangerous and life-threatening adventures.)


	38. stalwart and steady and true

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once you get Steve going he can talk a blue streak.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from 'Star Spangled Man'.

He holds onto the wall for a moment. Boy, that last blow was a doozy.

"First off you're Buck, and you talk to me like you _know_ me and you're one of the neighborhood boys," he pants out, 'cause his lungs feel like someone wrung 'em out like with a floorcloth. "Then you're a stranger again, and you're sneering at me like I can't understand no matter what language you use. And _then_ you gotta remind me that Uncle Sam made me wear _pantyhose and a knitted balaclava,_ via _musical theater accompaniment,_ 'cause you _always_ gotta make a joke of everything and add insult to injury, Buck, and _you know what,_ Buck? _That's_ how I know that no matter what the lingo, and what you call yourself, I GODDAMN KNOW THAT IT'S YOU."


	39. behind a mask

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Soldier, and all the things he could tell Steve.

The Soldier stares at him, for a moment.

Then there's a little smirk that quirks up the corner of his mouth.

 _Dammit_. Because it's the _goddamn truth,_ and Steve _knew_ it.

"You know how long I've been here, watching you, Captain?" the Soldier asks. And maybe Steve needs to give his head a shake, get rid of that muzziness, because _hey what?_


	40. what does he got that I haven't got/a brain!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve had an audience for his turn on 'Endurance'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from 'Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein'.

"What do you mean?" Steve asks, suspiciously. Because, hey, wait...

Visibly, the Soldier represses a snigger. And when he speaks, it's _all_ Buck, it's like they've jumped in Tony's goddamn crazy time-switching tincan and it's just _him_ and _Steve_ , like it used to be and shoulda always been.

Oh, except he's mean, now, more than funny. "How many tries did you take at that damn door?" he asks. "I mean, I make it five. And after the first one, I took a load off and just sat down and watched you try to make goulash outta what little brains you got, buddy. It was funnier than Abbot and Costello when they got their asses kicked by Frankenstein. Not even _Frankenstein_. A goddamn _door_ kicked your ass, Steve Rogers!"

He's pointing to the end of the corridor. There's two Starbucks cups to one side, by the left turning. Popcorn is all it would take to make the picture complete, that and a plush cinema seat from an expensive picturehouse.


	41. black as the devil, hot as hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Soldier's not about to stand around arguing about coffee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is Talleyrand on coffee. But I think he nicked it from an old Arabic saying.

It's infuriating. "You coulda _said_ something," he says, cheeks hot. "You coulda _helped_."

But whoever the hell it is Steve's talking to, he just shrugs. And oh yeah, it's back to the Rusky, a slurred garble that makes no allowance for a novice learner.

And then the Soldier's back's turned, and he's heading for the laboratory door. With Steve right behind him, whip-smart. Because there were _two_ fancy five-buck ventis, standing there lonely at the other end of this echoing corridor. One for the Soldier. And one for...


	42. wonders of modern technology

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Soldier hasn't got time to hang around for a cosy chat.

Well, for Peggy, Steve assumes. Who else?

And Steve's pretty nippy, but not quite quick enough. The Soldier's to the lab door before him. And the really galling thing? He doesn't even _use_ Steve's passcard, after he's tinkered with it. Just passes his shiny robot hand in front of the card-reader, like he's paying contactless for his mucked-up sugary coffee, and whaddya know?

Goddamn thing beeps him through, and the door clicks open. 


	43. through the gates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What lurks inside the lab?

Steve's straight through the door after him, though. They plunge, almost as one, a few steps into the laboratory.

And Steve stands immobilized a moment, like he just got thwacked with a two by four. (Just what he needs, after the punishment his noddle's gotten in the last hour.) "What the _Sam Hill?_ " he says.


	44. sleep, those little slices of death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony: having an afternoon nap.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is Edgar Allen Poe.

It's only a moment of shock. Then Steve runs over to the other side of the lab. Where Tony is laid out on the old leather couch that serves as his usual 'thinking spot'. But he's not doing a lot of thinking right now: he's out cold. And there's something about the hectic flush on his face and his stertorous breathing, that tips Steve off immediately that this isn't just a normal napbreak, snatched out of Tony's 24/7 lifestyle of relentless genius alternating with addictive womanizing.


	45. back in the day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's fine. The Soldier is fuckin' weird.

"He's _fine_ ," the Soldier says irritably, abstracted, while Steve is busy checking pulse points and vital signs. Y'know, trivia like that. "I don't remember you being such a fretting ninny, once upon a time. He'll wake up in an hour or two and be every bit the smug asshole you know and love."

He's busy himself -- busy standing in the middle of the lab, looking around. With a _look_ on his face.


	46. “Once upon a time there was a huge family of children; and they were terribly, terribly naughty.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nanny's a bit lackadaisical.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is Christianna Brand, author of Nanny McPhee.

It's a look that suggests he's trying to bring a word that escapes him to mind. Or like he's misplaced something fairly important.

"There's no need to be concerned, sir," a voice booms out, reassuringly, from the ether. It seems to be directed at Steve. "Mr Stark was overcome with fatigue a little while ago, and laid down to rest for a few minutes."

Steve flinches, then breathes hard. And says, "JARVIS! JARVIS -- why the hell didn't you--"


	47. "Talk about a Mickey Finn!"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Soldier's not explaining, but he's explaining _everything._ Covert operations can have that effect on a guy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is Muhammad Ali.

But the Soldier talks right over him, loud. So loud that it can't be anything other than a warning. Or a threat. And it's only because this asshole used to be -- _used_ to be Bucky -- that Steve allows it for a moment, and subsides himself. "That's right," the Soldier foghorns, Brooklyn accent out in force now, alright, but Steve can hear how it's phony, faked up for show. "The guy just conked out like as if someone had slipped him a Mickey Finn in a nightclub, ain't that right, JARVIS?"


	48. the wild boys are calling, on their way back from the fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aw no, Bucky wouldn't do _that_ , would he? (Yes.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from Duran Duran's 'Wild Boys', because like Sheldon, it's a case of _adonde me lleva la musica, gatita!_

He grins at Steve, teeth white in a grubby face -- like the urchins they used to be, little rascals every one of 'em -- and _dear God_ his eyes never used to be this crazy, did they? Sure he was a wild boy back in the day, but he always knew where the lines were, and what would get you in Rikers or dead, on the rough streets they ran on.

This version of Bucky wouldn't know a line if you drew it down his face in permanent marker.


	49. dirty pigeons they love a bit of it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And there's how he did it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is Blur, 'Parklife'.

"Him and me and Peggy, just sitting down for a cuppa joe," he continues -- hands at his back, pressing into his waist silver and flesh both, chest puffed out like a New York pigeon. Expansive, the raconteur just getting started. "An' Peggy made it for us, Steve -- our old pal, huh, you remember? Yours, an' mine, and Howard's too -- and I guess by transitive property that makes her Tony Stark's buddy, as well. I think she's officially on his list of trusted people, or somethin'."


	50. the one rule you have to absolutely obey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And why JARVIS would help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from the special, different, unique and amazing 'Before The Coffee Gets Cold' by the stellar and simply phenomenal Toshikazu Kawaguchi. Ain't no time-travel like caffeine-powered time-travel, buddy.

Tony's heart flutters beneath Steve's hands, as JARVIS replies, his synthetic Jeeves-ish tones booming out through the echoing, sterile laboratory. "Quite true, Sir. In fact, Mr Stark has several lists, of trustworthy individuals, long-term collaborators, and people who must be offered succour, shelter and assistance whenever they might be in need. Ms Carter features heavily on all such lists."


	51. we'll drink it as it is

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trust: how to win it, how to lose it. Incremental, irrevocable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from 'Before The Coffee Gets Cold'. It's insanely good, folks.

Of course she does. Of course she _would_. With Howard to vouch for her from way back, and Steve's heart belonging to her _forever_ , and Tony trusts Steve more than Steve feels he could ever deserve and that means that...

The Soldier's smiling into Steve's eyes, like he's watching the tumblers fall, the calculations summed in the spreadsheet. "And that's why she made the coffee, ain't that right, JARVIS? Vouching for me, when we came to pay a little visit, and have a talk about Mr Stark's new invention. 'Cause otherwise, he might've not wanted to give me houseroom, not with recent events to take into account. Not without Captain America's say-so. But as it is, we all sat down together real nice over some top-notch quality java. And then Pegs helped Tony lie down, when he got to feeling real tired all of a sudden."


	52. whether one returns to the past or travels to the future, the present does not change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Soldier is ruthless.
> 
> He would be surprised to know how ruthless Steve can be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from 'Before The Coffee Gets Cold', it's rockin' and stupendous, people!

All that Steve's left to wonder, is if Peggy deliberately and knowingly spiked Tony's cup -- but that's unthinkable! Or if the Soldier just nudged her into it, a casual direction that her decaying brain wasn't capable of thinking through.

He's never gone up against Bucky -- not _Bucky_ , as opposed to the Soldier. But he feels like it would come to him quite easy, now, to smash this smiling manipulator's face into the tiles of the laboratory floor.


	53. two loves I have, of comfort and despair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So Steve's knows what's up. What to do about it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is sonnet 144, Shakespeare.

But Tony's alright -- stirs beneath his hands and murmurs, even as Steve thinks it. Doesn't stop him rising to his feet -- his full height, taller than Buck now, more built, without the enhancements could have _flattened_ him in their little sparring match on the helicarrier. And stepping forward, as he says, "You're right. Tony would _never_ have let you touch his new toy -- not without me there, to guarantee Peggy wasn't being coerced into anything. He wouldn't have let you kid her into anything, just because it suits you, just because you decide you want a playmate you can half-remember."

He doesn't know if they're fighting, or dancing now, on the verge of either.


	54. Chapter 54

The Soldier steps back, and yeah, they're dancing now, orbiting each other, moving into the middle of this half-lit dusty lab, dust-motes and half-progressed experiments all around them. But the Soldier's on the retreat, which is good, because Steve can't answer for it if he got his hands on him right now.

His face is angry, now, like Steve jabbed deep enough to get a reaction, finally. And he mutters to himself, more of his Soviet jibber-jabber. Not meant for Steve. More like he's arguin' with himself, out loud. 

A broken doll, and that's so much Steve's fault. But that won't stop Steve. Not if Peggy gets hurt in this.


	55. Chapter 55

He's shakin'. Visibly, but Steve hardens his heart. (Far as he can. Far as he can, but that ain't far, not against Bucky.)

He's alert enough to still be on the move, keeping Steve at a distance as they move out into the center of the lab. But when he punches himself upside the head -- hard, and with the hand he wasn't born with - Steve flinches. And has to wonder if there's anyone really home in there, anyhow.


	56. Chapter 56

Maybe it's only to shake his brain if it's on the fritz, though. Kinda like one of those snowglobes, Bucky's ma used to collect them, a million years ago... Anyhow it seems to work: the Soldier's eyes are alert, again, _compos mentis_ seemin'. Eyes an' voice sharp and direct, both, as he says, "I would never do that. You ought to know better, Steve Rogers. I brought her here because you _wouldn't_ , because you didn't respect her enough to give her the _choice_ \--"


	57. you can't handle the truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from some fillum with Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson.

"She isn't _capable_ of making a choice!" Steve says hotly -- and feels a curious shame in the assertion, but isn't it true? "What the hell have you _done_ with her, anyway?" Because - newsflash alert -- where the hell _is_ Peggy? "If you've done anything -- if she's hurt, I will... I will..." The words choke him, clog up his throat, and he can feel his cheeks redden.

Now Steve has seen a lot of things, in his truncated eighty-something years. But he has yet to see the Soldier, abashed, and suddenly shy of eye-contact. Until now.


	58. dance with the one what brung ya

"Ah, _y'see_ , Steve," he says -- and Steve's heard that exact note before, at the beginning of a shaggy dog story. He's heard it from _Bucky_ , when Bucky knew he wasn't going to show up as the hero of the tale, but he was bound and determined to front it out anyway.

He's heard it _so many times._

"Well, Peggy was very agreeable to helping me out. Me and Tony, and me _with_ Tony, you might say." Bucky's only just out of arm's reach, now: not as careful to stay beyond Steve's grasp. As if he's forgotten, for the minute, that they're supposed to be mortal enemies. 

As if the idea would be ridiculous.


	59. Chapter 59

"An' she was the one made coffee for us all, ain't that nice, ain't that Peggy all over," he adds. (Is that a wink? That's a goddamn _wink_. Steve lunges forward, the Soldier steps back smartly, from dancing they've made the leap into fencing, barring a distinct lack of epées.)

"But," the Soldier says thoughtfully -- still on the move, and just as if they were talking it over, over a beer, Jesus _sweet_ Christ -- "ya know what Tony's coffee-making is like. And his equipment for it."

He nods over at the work surface on the far wall. There's a mousetrap collection of report jars, test tubes and glass tubing, that constitutes Tony Stark's coffee-brewin' equipment. It is not the kind of cafetière or fancy eye-talian engineering that's gonna reproduce the modern barista experience, is all Steve's sayin'.


	60. Chapter 60

"Like drinkin' rancid machine grease, out of the cogs and wheels of one o' his robots," the Soldier says thoughtfully. "With a little coke in there, just for added pep an' zing. But Tony, he knocked it back like it was champagne. And me and Pegs, we just made _as if._ "

He grins, because Steve knows _why_. Steve's heart thunders. Anger, and also, in some way, Bucky's _still in there._ Some essence of Buck that can't be deleted, no matter what you throw at it.

"And then," the Soldier adds, "Tony got to feeling tired." He nods over at where Tony is still peacefully slumbering. Snoring, slightly. "But Peggy, she'd been promised coffee. And she wasn't gonna drink any of that laboratory muck that Tony brews up. So she sent me out, to get her something decent."

How often, does a highly trained Soviet assassin look... a little sheepish? (How often can a highly trained Soviet assassin be sent out to Starbucks on a coffee-run?"


	61. Chapter 61

"And you just left her in here? By herself?" Steve is furious: but more than that, he's floored. He loves Tony like a brother, but he wouldn't give the irresponsible toddler-man sole responsibility for an aspidistra, never mind kids or fragile senior citizens. Even if he were _conscious_.

The Soldier's brow is crinkled. "And where the hell are they?... Dammit, Steve, you made me go and forget Peggy's good joe! And mine too!"

It's really not the goddamn point.


	62. every lover is a soldier

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is Ovid. Well, according to Mary Karr -- I couldn't really say, myself.

"Not the goddamn point!" he says. (Because someone's gotta.) "The point -- the _point_ is, you left her in here alone. Alone! Even Tony asleep, and it's not as if I'd trust Tony to take care of a cat, let alone a fragile old lady!"

And this guy that Steve _does not know, not really, not anymore_ \-- has the godalmighty gall to look _offended_. "She wasn't alone," he corrects Steve. "She was with JARVIS. JARVIS will always look after Peggy, ain't that right, JARVIS my man? It's practically programmed into him."


	63. you gotta love a date willing to do stuff he'll regret

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is Mary Karr. Or Mary Karr, taking inspiration from someone else.

"Quite right, sir," JARVIS intones. Or actually, it's more of a deep, soothing murmur. "The wellbeing and happiness of certain individuals, including Ms Carter, is one of my fundamental guiding principles."

And Steve, Steve rolls his neck around like he's in WWE, stretches his shoulder muscles to ease 'em. Because yeah, he's angry with Bucky. But if JARVIS doesn't shape up, he might find himself getting a reboot _up the ass._


	64. Chapter 64

"Oh yeah?" Steve says. He almost murmurs it. He's almost talking to himself. (He's afraid he might explode.) "Oh YEAH?" (He's not murmuring anymore. He's circling around, now: JARVIS' voice isn't miked up from any specific direction, seems ambient, ubiquitous. There's nobody to _punch_.)

Up to the corners, the ceiling, the walls: Steve's staring everywhere, and maybe the whites of his eyes are showing. "Is that right? Well, then, JARVIS: how about you explain to us WHERE THE HELL IS SHE? WHERE IS PEGGY, you immaterial Goddamn asshole?"


	65. Chapter 65

"Yeah, good question," Bucky drawls. And Steve whirls around to turn on him, because _what the hell,_ they're on the same side now?

The Soldier shrugs at him, then looks up and around, in the same searching manner as Steve. "Hey, I _trusted_ you with her, buddy. That's a very old and dear friend of mine, and the Captain too. So a) what the heck you done with her, buddy? And b) what in Satan's name _happened_ here, while I was out playing gopher and getting coffee? How have you managed to mislay a small, delicate, not very mobile old lady?"

'Cause _gee_. His English seems to work just _fine_ , when it suits him.


	66. be excellent to each other

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from Bill & Ted. There's a space out there for Steve and Bucky's Excellent Adventure.

"There's no need for alarm, gentlemen," JARVIS booms out. And what Steve means is, easy for _him_ to say. "Miss Carter is in perfect health, and completely unharmed."

"That doesn't exactly cover everything we asked you, buddy," the Soldier counters. He's wandering into the center of the lab, head cocked to one side, eyes a little blank. Like he's talking to a _person_ on Bluetooth, not an AI that could go _crazy Wargames homicidal_ any minute. (Steve has put himself through a course of classic teen sci-fi movies from the 80s. Him and Bucky, they were born in the wrong era. God, they'da loved Bill and Ted, woulda freaked out over Wyld Stallyns. Why... there's no use to ask why. Life is as it is, and they just got kicked in the teeth, wrong time wrong place.)


	67. you broke it you bought it

"Like what ezackly happened, between me entrusting magnificent milady Margaret Carter into your invisible hands, and turning up twenty-five minutes later, with a coupla lattes and an American hero in tow? (That joe, it's gonna be clap cold, you know that, Stevo, right? You owe me about eight bucks now.)" That's the Soldier, pursuing the matter. And Steve hasn't got time to worry about multiple personality disorder. He tables that for _later_.

"Ms Carter was perfectly comfortable in my company, sir," JARVIS counters. If an AI could sound rattled and defensive, then...


	68. Chapter 68

"In your absence, and with Mr Stark temporarily indisposed, I suggested that she take a seat while I played her some restful music -- a Bach fugue, perhaps, or some Scarlatti -- I personally find his mathematical precision very soothing."

The Soldier throws his hands up in the air. "I'm sure you do, buddy -- we ain't all _robots_ , that's all. Seriously, you couldn't've even sprung for some Glenn Miller? A little Ella Fitzgerald? Was that too much to ask? There's nothing wrong with a _cliché_ when you're putting a tottery old broad at her ease, buddy."

There's a moment's silence. To be strictly accurate, there's a moment's _huffy_ silence.


	69. Chapter 69

Then JARVIS continues, just as if the Soldier hadn't uttered a word. "However, despite my best efforts to dissuade her, Ms Carter was quite set on taking a look around the laboratory."

Well, of course she was. Steve can see it now. Using a walker, her brain needing a kick-start on a regular basis, about ready to hit a century before she shuffles off this mortal coil, it don't matter: ain't nothing can stop Peggy Carter when she's got a notion to explore.


	70. Chapter 70

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You can take the girl out of the sidearm-toting secret service position, but...

"She was very interested in Mr Stark's experiments in robotics," JARVIS continues repressively. "And -- despite his stated stance on the subject -- was rather convinced that he must have some secret ongoing work into weaponry and armaments hidden away. I quote, sirs -- 'Come along, sweetie, I know that Howard's boy must have the good stuff stashed around here somewhere. A nice little laser-firing handgun a girl can fit inside her pocketbook? After all, Mr JARVIS, you just never know when a girl's going to require some protection."


	71. Chapter 71

_Damn_ , Peggy. Flirting with a masculine-identifying AI, at an age when she ought to be struggling to comprehend her Netflix interface? Yeah, that sounds about right.

"And then," JARVIS adds -- and there's something deliberate and portentous in how he does it -- "Ms Carter took an interest in Mr Stark's chronomanipulator. The project he has now put on the backburner, after certain covert agencies expressed reservations regarding possible consequences, if its potential were to be widely discussed."


	72. Chapter 72

Well, they had to get around to the _elephant in the room_ some time. The big, junky elephant, that seems to be built out of chrome wheel-hubs and rusty trashcans and just _anything_ Tony had lying around, when he was in the middle of an inspired creative fever. When he decided, six months back, that _hey maybe immortality -- or the fountain of youth -- or time travel, would be a really amazing idea._


	73. Chapter 73

Because that's Tony. The MENSA-level goddamn _idiot_.

"Whaddya mean, took an interest?" Steve asks. He asks it suspiciously. And with a sense of foreboding.

The Soldier don't ask anything. He's busy playing with that creepy shiny goddamn hand. Which -- it turns out -- has a real nice switchblade attachment, and he's playing with _that_ , now. sliding it down his palm to create the finest, shallowest cut, and following the beads of blood with his tongue. _Goddamn_.

But JARVIS is disembodied, so Steve doesn't know what good he thinks _that's_ gonna do him.


	74. Chapter 74

"She appeared to understand a little about it, despite certain issues with mental acuity she was possibly experiencing," JARVIS says. He says it a little stiffly. What a goddamn _butler_ he is, after all. They're probably all getting their characters traduced in the servants' hall, the minute they're out of earshot. "And she required the fullest explanation from me, regarding its capacities, functions, the level of testing and trouble-shooting to which it has been put, any safety issues, and the legal position of usage _contra_ advice and instruction from certain agencies. And then she had me open it up to allow her access, and tried it out herself."

"Say _what_ now?" Steve says.

The Soldier startles, and cuts his lip with that goddamn blade. 


	75. Chapter 75

Steve stares at the ugly hulk of thing, slap bang in the middle of the quartet of steel lab tables in the middle of the room. He marches over and grabs at the door, but it was hanging open when he ran after Bucky into the lab, and it's not like it's gonna suddenly acquire an occupant, now.

"You mean she gave it a dummy-run, just sat down in there and fiddled with a few controls, like seein' how a new car feels and sniffin' the leather seats?" Steve asks. Because he's hanging on to hope, here.

"I think he means she gave it a test-drive, Cap," the Soldier drawls. He's examining that blade, still, and looking mighty thoughtful.

Thoughtful, but not unduly distressed. Not worried. Because why would he care? This is what he wanted, right?


	76. Chapter 76

Steve is _steaming_. Stomps over to the Soldier, up close enough for a headbutt. Close enough for a kiss, too, but if you were laying odds, looking at 'em, then a headbutt would be odds-on. "Great," he snaps, and can almost see the Soldier stiffen up, his spine rigid, when Steve says it. Odds-on he's got some freaky titanium-reinforced skeleton, too. "Ain't that _great_. "So you got what you were aiming at, huh, buddy? And that doesn't bother you? You -- you _asshole_ \-- and your _gross negligence,_ with the best buddy a guy ever had, when she's old and frail and sick? How do you know what the end result is gonna be? That tin-can over there, what other human test-subject has it ever had?" 

He points over at the cutting-edge hunk o' junk. His finger is shaking, and he's not a bit surprised.


	77. Chapter 77

"How do you know she's not gonna get sick from it?" he demands. "How do you know she won't wind up crazy-psycho? Or suddenly age a hundred thousand years and drop dead, like that H. Rider Haggard book we useta read, that 'She'? _Anything_ could happen, it could destroy her, you don't _know_ \--"

He's ranting, with some justification, and trembling. Because, sure, a Peggy young and free and vital, in this crazy astonishing future they've been thrown into, that would be _something to see._ But...


	78. Chapter 78

"The procedure is perfectly safe, sir," JARVIS assures him. And something about the tone reminds Steve of the dame they had on him when he first woke up in this strange world, and she was a liar, too. "All sub-functions have been thoroughly pre-tested, and in any case the maiden experiment passed off without a hitch, as you might say. Ms Carter was completely unharmed."

"Sure," Steve says bitterly. "The _experiment_ was completely successful. Although I prefer to call her _Peggy_." He's aware of the Soldier moving in closer: and then of a hand on his arm, a human hand too. And he feels so despairing, he doesn't even shake it off.


	79. Chapter 79

"Can we fix it?" he demands, looking up for an answer like he's begging to God, not to JARVIS. "Can we reverse it?"

And the Soldier's hand drops from him, comfort abruptly withdrawn. There's a muttered Russian expletive, and Steve can hear the disgust without having to know what it means. "Why would you even _want_ to?" he demands. It's funny, how the Russian accent floods back even when he's talking English, when he's angry. Like it's default for him now, part of his nature. Oh, Bucky is broken.

He backs off, away from Steve, and turns his back.


	80. Chapter 80

But Steve's past justifying himself. Bucky's had his head tinkered with so much, built and re-built and left an unstable ticking timebomb, that he can't see a damn thing wrong risking the same treatment on someone -- Steve will allow -- he seems to genuinely care about.

It's _JARVIS_ he's talking to. "Can we?" he demands. "Before we _get_ to the point of side-effects and consequences. Before it's too late?"

JARVIS' voice is always robotic, you might say. But something about it seems especially stiff and unrelenting. "Miss Carter is a High Priority Individual, for Mr Stark, sir. I am tasked not only with protecting her, but also with acceding to her wishes, except where that might endanger herself or others."


	81. Chapter 81

Wrong move. Steve's mom _really_ didn't birth no fool. Plus, he's been dealing with politicians, City Hall, negotiators and conmen since... since they dosed him up with the serum. Since they took him outta that goddamn sarcophagus, and put him in pantyhose and red-white-and-blue. 

He knows an evasion when he hears one. "That means _yes_ , right?" he demands. "You can reverse it. You _can_."

And, from away off, other side of the lab, the Soldier whistles. How, when, did he putter off so far away, silent as a cat? "Hoo, boy," he murmurs, every bit as apple-pie as Steve, like he wouldn't know a Slavic glacier if you tossed him in one from a moving train. "I'd be real careful, if I were you, Cap'."


	82. Chapter 82

"He's not wrong. He's an asshole, but he's not wrong." And THAT, that over to Steve's other side, is Tony. Tony, sitting up dead straight on the couch, his eyes wild and red-rimmed, pop-eyed. "Watch yourself, Steve." And then, in an instant, same as how he popped up, he falls back down flat, unconscious again.

Well. At least they know he's alive for sure, and that Mickey Finn didn't do for him.

And that's when something hits Steve real smart and heavy on the back of his head. He sees stars. Lights go out.


	83. Chapter 83

Steve does come to again, for a few moments, before he's out for the count for the present little while. He's flat on the floor -- and falling backwards can't have helped the goose-egg on the back of his head. Boy, that's going to...

The Soldier appears in his field of vision, leaning over him, peering. He opens his trap and talks, and now ain't the moment for Steve to be scrabbling for what Rusky he's picked up on Duolingo. He's pretty sure he can tell from the Soldier's expression, what it is he's saying, anyhow. It's rueful, and a little amused, (the asshole!) and there's something warm in it too. You might say, tender. He looks like a concerned friend. 

He looks like Bucky.

And he's saying -- Steve don't need no translator -- "Sorry, bud." And also, "We're outta here." 


	84. Chapter 84

Then he withdraws, out of the circumscribed circle of Steve's field of vision, out into the darkness surrounding. 

And someone else leans over him, instead.

That someone, being Peggy. Peggy, Peggy, oh Pegs. But not as he saw her last, bent and wizened and lost in her own mind.

No. This Peggy, it's Peggy at her _height_ , in her glory. A wild wild creature, with a shine on her to blind you. About twenty-five -- again -- with an ass that won't quit, a bosom that greets all comers and points out where to go, and a mouth that shuts down hecklers like a loaded pistol.


	85. Chapter 85

There's a baseball bat hanging loosely from her useful little fist. Steve recognizes it, vaguely: some battle-scarred trophy from a classic game, that probably took place long after he was an icecube floating in gin. Well, in arctic waters, but life has been strange enough since the serum that he might as well be slaughtered on spirits the whole damn time. It's one of Tony's expensive symbols of the common man, anyway, bought at auction for a million times its objective value.

"Oh, darling, I'm so sorry." He isn't sure, in his woozy muddling mind, if she's crying, or laughing at him. "But honestly, Steve. What can a girl do?" She holds her hands up in the air, helplessly. The bat swings in a beautiful arc, as if she were about to hit a home-run. Which she effectively has, pretty much.


	86. don't want the time?  don't commit the crime

And then she bends closer to him, to kiss him. She kisses his forehead, though, and damfool Steve, he can't but pucker up, because there'll never be a time he wouldn't kiss Peggy back. Including after she's just effectively sucker-punched him with a baseball bat. From behind.

That's the kind of fool he is, for Peggy Carter.

Then the Soldier grabs her by the hand, and says something briefly urgent. The darkness is creeping up on Steve again, anyhow. He isn't sure if it's a real memory, or something his brain's concocted to comfort him, that the Soldier bends and kisses his forehead too, before they turn and run, hand in hand.

It sure would be nice to believe in it.


	87. sinning from the very beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is 1 John 3:7-8.

About forty minutes later, Steve is reviewing the video footage of the sequence of events transpiring in the lab, about fifty minutes earlier. Yeah, he's up and about. His old noggin can take a lot of punishment post-serum, which is fortunate.

He's sitting next to Tony. Who is recovering, slowly, with a lot of complaining and bitching about _the dubious class of people Steve has introduced into the Avengers' social circle._ Steve would argue, except that the guy's got a point.

Tony's self-medicating with a bucketful of the gooey black tar he calls coffee. (Because the Soldier wasn't wrong on that subject.) And Steve is nursing the goose-egg -- or multiple goose-eggs, at this point -- on his head. Insult to injury doesn't even seem to cover it.


	88. kiss my Texas ass, buddy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is Mary Karr.

Steve watches the Soldier's arrival in the lab -- via service lift and staff corridors and basement fire escapes, and with some tinkering between his hand and secured entryways requiring authorized passcards and sometimes biometric data. Remotely delaying cameras from loading to the cloud, according to Tony's comments. Carrying a startled Peggy over his shoulder, to get down to basement level.

No surprises there.

(Tony's surprised. His lips are tight, as he mutters about the Soldier having gained access to the operating system, and how did Cold War-era super-secret spy coaches train him in modern coding anyhow? He clearly is talking to himself, not Steve, and Steve lets him get on with it.)

Maybe that's how Steve got blocked from accessing Tony's personal lab without an invite, he figures. By the Soldier, keeping Steve's nose out, stopping him from interfering with the Soldier's nefarious plans. Not that Steve's going to instigate a buddy-buddy chat about that right now, with Tony.


	89. Chapter 89

He's a little too busy, also watching Tony's cautious welcome, when the Soldier makes his unannounced visit, trailing Peggy behind him. Peggy, still feeling the weight of decades, and showing every wrinkle and moment of them, her eyes uncertain and her legs unsteady.

Steve's heart has taken some hammerings, these past months since they dredged him up out of the sea. But this is about enough to break it, finally.


	90. will you be a lousy scab or will you be a man?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is from Pete Seeger's 'Which Side Are You On'.

"I'd have kicked his ass out of the building, if he hadn't had Peggy with him," Tony comments, eyes glued just the same as Steve's. He takes a slurp of his coffee: his hair's sticking up at all angles like the mad prof. he truly is, and his eyes are glued up like a kitty with pinkeye. He _has_ looked more the dapper gent about town, on many an occasion.

"No you wouldn't," Steve says, amused. The image is hilarious. "He'd have kicked _your_ ass."

"Whose side are you on?" Tony protests. Then concedes. "Alright, I'd have kicked his ass if I'd had time to get to War Machine. _Before_ he kicked mine."


	91. Chapter 91

Sitting and chatting, they watch an onscreen Tony chat with his uninvited guests. The audio's on the fritz, but Steve gathers enough to know that he offers them a beverage -- with coolly suspicious eyes, and a hard look at the Soldier. And that Peggy refuses -- maneuvers him, with a gentle hand on his arm, and tiny half-steps forward, to sit down himself, Bucky beside him. While she's Mother, brewing up over on the bench at the side of the lab. Really, considering the wormy moth-eaten state of her mind -- at the time -- it's a very sly bit of work. No doubt Bucky had coached her a little beforehand, but still... But she does have these odd moments of lucidity, every now and then: will surprise you with a sharp observation, a smart deduction. Or she did, Steve corrects himself: she _did_.

On-screen Peggy makes the tea. It's a deft bit of work, but even on CCTV images, Steve spots the _legerdemain_ , as she hands off the contents of a glass vial, into Tony's cup. Her liver-spotted, wrinkled hands tremble, as she does it. But only with age and infirmity. There's no doubt, no hesitation, no second-guessing.

 _Peggy_. Goddamn. Once a secret agent, always a secret agent, even in one's dotage, it seems.

"Muscle memory, you think?" Tony suggests.

"Aw, _Tony_ ," Steve groans, and lets his head roll back. It aches, like his heart, like everything.

"Hey, it was _Peggy_ ," Tony protests. "Was I supposed to be expecting _that_?"


	92. i'm a regular joe and i like my joe regular

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title is Frasier.

"They just wanted to talk," Tony says, his face reflective. "He came in peace! So he said." 

"That's what the bad guy always says," Steve reminds him. "Don't you ever go to the pictures?"

"I thought, 'What harm can it do?'" Tony says. " _You_ ought to know what I'm talking about. That was _the_ girl, for my Dad -- for you too, I guess. Maybe your old pal, too. My mom was -- well, my mom deserved better, let's just put it like that. Damn, Peggy, she was so _sweet_ \-- even knocking on for a century, and with half her mind withered away. Sweet, and funny, and capable of delivering a guy a Mickey Finn and flirting with him while she did it. Like I was going to refuse Peggy Carter anything, Steve. I mean, I wouldn't have let 'em near the chrono experiment -- not without you being in on the deal and okaying it, that's for sure. But..."

"Yeah," Steve says. "That's how come the knock-out drops in your joe, Tony."


	93. Chapter 93

They watch it play out. Peggy and Tony sitting on the lab couch, and the Soldier wandering the lab a little restlessly as they talk, but not far enough to put Tony more on edge. On-screen Tony has a suspicious expression, but not suspicious enough: he downs his coffee like a good boy. 

When his eyelids flutter and his head goes down, the Soldier steps forward smartly, almost in time to stop him sliding off the couch and banging his head.

Steve can't help but crack up, it's the purest slapstick: and reluctantly, Tony joins in. "I'd just said that I'd have to take some time, to think about going forward with Peggy using the chrono device," he says, rueful. "Putting them off, excuses excuses. Obviously he understood that perfectly well. Pretty sure Peggy did, for that matter."


	94. Chapter 94

The Soldier picks Tony back up again, and lays him down on the couch as gentle as a mother: a hand to his head, a quick skimming to check for any injury. There's an audible inquiry from JARVIS: and the Soldier turns his face up, and responds in Russian. There's a dazzling smile on his face, an oily, practised, synthetic charm that has nothing to do with any Bucky Steve's ever known. Boy, they got him well-trained, like onea those dogs of Pavlov's.

But it seems to work well enough. 


	95. goose sauce

"I'm going to have to have some words with JARVIS," Tony notes. "Because that's either evidence of extreme gullibility, or he's consorting with the enemy and letting himself get talked round by extremely persuasive sweet-talking assassin conmen. A fifth-columnist AI is not what we need as our next major obstacle."

Onscreen, the Soldier smiles to himself -- the faintest smirk, but that's the real Bucky. Steve's seen that smirk, at one hop or another when Bucky was trying _this_ line, _that_ line with a dame, and finally one worked and she was hooked, on the line.


	96. Chapter 96

But lines that work on regular girls -- and even on practically omniscient AIs -- are by no means guaranteed to have the slightest effect on Peggy Carter. What goes down, now, is that the Soldier seems _real pleased with himself._ (And what else is new there, Steve thinks, what else?) Like, he takes Peggy's hand, where she's perched on the sofa lookin' down at Tony with real sad eyes.

And he tugs at her hand a little, looking away at the chrono-trashheap in the middle of the lab. Like he's expecting her to just jump up, far as her old knees'll let her, and follow him, do his bidding. Like Peggy Carter's a little lapdog or sumthin', perky little _chihuahua_ all eager to please.

Like, this dude. What planet is he on?


	97. Chapter 97

Anyhow, he gets pretty much the response Steve would have expected. The audio's still on the blink, and Tony don't seem to care too much about fixing it. But Steve can hear the imperious tone in his little queen's voice -- Peggy, the autocrat, the little _Cheltenham Ladies' College_ madam! (For all he knew her a little better than that, way back then: that Daddy kept the books for a Home Counties solicitor, and her Ma taught kindergarten, and Pegs is about _half_ as posh as that regal-milady exterior. She always sure knew how to put on the front, though. And still does.) 


	98. Chapter 98

And what he can certainly catch, is the word _coffee_ \- uttered on an uptalk swing, with an audible question mark. That's as Pegs looks down, with a disgusted expression, at the murky contents of her own cup, brewed from the same evil glassware teat as Tony's spiked concoction.

She gives the Soldier a _look_ : and follows it with what, going by tone of voice, is an _instruction_. Not a request, even if polite: there's the same tone of voice that she used to use with a bolshy private on the paradeground.


	99. Chapter 99

And -- these past weeks, these months -- Steve can't recall ever seeing the Soldier _abashed_ , before.

He likes it. Tony's leaned over, has splurted out his own coffee, is giggling.

The Soldier bows his head a little onscreen - stiffly dignified, but no-one here is buying it -- and accedes to her clearly detailed instructions. Clicks his heels, nods again, and heads on out of the lab, going for the basement service entrance they sneaked in through.

A clueless noob intern. Sent out on a coffee run.


End file.
